Sheboygan’s police chief has asked the city to spend $32,000 next year to replace aging bulletproof vests like this worn by the city’s SWAT team members.(Photo: McLean Bennett/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

Taupe storage lockers line the walls, and a few cushioned stools sit cobbled around an office table.

Michael Stelter, a sergeant with the Sheboygan Police Department and a supervisor on the city’s tactical SWAT team, points to two heavy black vests on the table. They’re bulletproof — or they’re supposed to be.

And they’ve become a problem.

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Sheboygan’s police chief has asked the city to spend $32,000 next year to replace aging bulletproof vests like this worn by the city’s SWAT team members.(Photo: McLean Bennett/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

“Kevlar that is being used on a daily basis, they say, is only good for five years,” Stelter explains. Because Sheboygan’s SWAT team only responds sporadically to calls, the vests’ lifespan may be a little longer: “You can get a good 10 years, maybe even 12, if you’re not using them every day.”

But, he adds, “I’ve been here 18 years. We’ve had these vests every year.”

Sheboygan’s 15-member SWAT team has had the same wardrobe of black vests since about 1999. Stelter said that’s when a federal grant helped the city pay for about 10 of the protective outfits that have, by now, long outlived their expiration date.

That's why Sheboygan Police Chief Chris Domagalski is asking the city next year to pay $32,000 to help his department buy 16 new vests for his SWAT team.

The budget item is small compared to some of the other things Domagalski has asked the city to fund in next year’s citywide capital improvements program. He’s also asking for more than $45,000 to replace officers’ handguns, along with more than $180,000 for new vehicles.

But the new vests’ payout, theoretically, could be huge.

“We can spend $32,000 now up front, or we can spend a million dollars, or whatever it’s going to be, later on down the line,” Domagalski said recently. “The liability is huge, and we have to cover that.”

Christopher Domagalski(Photo: Photo by Bruce Halmo/The Sheboyg)

He pointed specifically to potential worker’s compensation and other related costs the city could face if one of its officers were injured or killed while wearing one of the old pieces of equipment. A lawsuit that could follow, he added, could force yet more payment.

If the city approves the funding, Domagalski said the department could get the new vests in 2019.

Stelter said he and a few other tactical team members have bought their own protective gear — he noted the department has fewer vests than it has SWAT personnel, not all of whom even fit in the outfits they’re provided — though he said piecing together their own bulletproof suits can get “pricey.”

The department-issued vests are heavy, bulky and outdated, he and Domagalski both added. Stelter pointed to an armored outfit he’s put together, noting its lighter weight and design give him more mobility than he’d have if he wore one of the department's 15-pound, restrictive vests.

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Stelter said the city’s tactical team members are rarely deployed together for what the public might consider SWAT-style calls. But Stelter said the team's members are sprinkled throughout the department, working various shifts alongside other officers and usually providing tactical support or assistance during more routine dispatches that could nevertheless get dangerous.

Asked what good the outdated vests might do, given their age, Stelter paused a moment.

"That’s a good question," he said, before adding that "Kevlar can usually hold up."

Domagalski said a vest that's been "degraded" over time "is still better than no vest."

"But is that really a risk that we want to take?" the chief said. "At some point, there has to be a line where we say, enough of this."